Flyers Score 4 In Second, Rout Sabres 5-1

Both the Philadelphia Flyers and the Buffalo Sabres had lost three straight going into Thursday night’s matchup at the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia.

After a scoreless first period, the Flyers jumped on Sabres’ goalie Robin Lehner, scoring twice in the first 2:11 of the second period.  The first goal of the second came off the stick of Flyers’ left winger R.J. Umberger, his first goal of the season and also his first goal in 50 games.  His goal came off a nice pass from center Sam Gagner who placed the puck right in front of the net for the goal.

Defenseman Brayden Schenn followed up with a one-timer only 48 seconds later to open the flood gates for Philadelphia. Wayne Simmonds notched his 20th goal of the season 8 and a half minutes into the period and then Michael Raffl put up the fourth Flyers goal with just over 4 minutes remaining in the period.

This was the second game in a row the Sabres yielded 4 consecutive goals, the previous was during their 7-4 loss to the Panthers.  Buffalo got a goal in the third from James McGinn his 12th, before Nick Cousins got his first goal of the year for the Flyers to make it 5-1.

Buffalo (21-28-6) outshot the Flyers 42-28, will host the Montreal Canadiens tonight, February 12 at 7 pm.  The Flyers (24-20-9) picked up crucial points as they try to catch Pittsburgh (27-19-7)  for the last playoff spot in the Eastern Conference.  The Flyers host the New Jersey Devils (27-21-7) on Saturday, February 13, in a pivotal matchup as the Devils are also fighting for the playoffs and have 61 points, to the Flyers’ 57.